An always-entertaining Garth Brooks has canceled the remainder of his 2021 shows to do his part in fighting covid-19. He is offering refunds to almost 350,000 tickets throughout the five cities that he had for the remainder of the year. He has already performed in five cities this year and he said in July that he thought the worst was behind him, but now the new surge in cases made him rethink the rest of his tour. Rescheduling his tour is something that he and his team are considering, but they didn’t want to keep fans on the hook about a future date so all refunds will be processed through Ticketmaster. 

Brooks is hopeful that he will be able to resume his tour by the end of the year and he is deeply saddened by the fact that he had to cancel any shows at all. He showed his gratitude for the fans, crew members, band, and everyone involved in making his live shows possible while maintaining health and safety protocols for the shows that have happened throughout this year. 

The music industry seems to be split on whether the live shows should still be happening. Fellow country star Jason Aldeen has been giving anti-mask talks at his shows and has yet to cancel any stops on his tour while Stevie Nicks to Limp Bizkit have canceled their current tours due to the rise in cases. 

In parts of the country, music festivals are being canceled and some states are requiring masks to be worn at large events, such as concerts, where there are 10,000 people or more in attendance. In California, these include outdoor events and concerts along with indoor concerts, which was already an established rule.